Our collections

Our first collections were brought together more than 200 years ago and we’ve been adding to them ever since.

From art to archaeology, history to industry, the natural and the wider world, they are amongst the UK’s finest with many recognised as nationally and internationally important. They can be seen on display across all our museums, in our stores or online.

You can buy some of our most popular items online as either prints or digital files using our bridgeman images collection.

We support an active loans policy to provide increased access to our collections. For more information, download our Conditions of Loan (PDF 259KB).

We’re aware of an issue currently on our online collections search, which we are looking into fixing. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Search our collections

Search our extensive collections online.

Visit our collection search

Search the archives

Explore the collections held at Bristol Archives.

Visit our online catalogue

British Empire & Commonwealth Collection

Photographs, films, personal papers, sound recordings and objects.

Explore our collection

Decolonisation

Find out about our action on decolonisation

Follow us on our journey